Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the processing of electronic tokens, and in particular but not exclusively, to the processing of electronic tokens transferred between users of a communication system.
Description of the Related Technology
The transfer of a limited resource from one party to another has historically involved the physical exchange of that resource, or the exchange of currency in lieu of the underlying physical resource. With the advent of the internet, the transfer of currency from person to person by virtual means has increased significantly. Typically, both parties require accounts with a financial institution, such that funds can be transferred from an account associated with one party to an account associated with the other party.
As an alternative to transferring funds between accounts, currency may be alternatively exchanged directly, for example for goods and services, in which case a recipient of the funds may not need to have an account with a financial institution. Applying this model to a communications network such as the internet however raises a number of security concerns. The widespread availability of access to the internet, and the interconnected nature of its components drastically increases the susceptibility of connected resources to attacks from malicious parties. Removing the association between an amount of funds transferred to a recipient and a holding account increases the exposure of those funds to the potential for theft.
This problem is broader than the field of payment systems, and applies to the transfer of electronic data to an accountless recipient in general. If no recipient account information is stored against the transferred data, it becomes difficult to confirm that a user transacting with that data is indeed the authorized recipient of the data. Hence, it would be desirable to provide a measures for processing electronic data that address some or all of these concerns.